Page 59 of Betrayed

“What on earth?”

Zara didn’t let go of her arm but led her to follow chalk arrows pointing away from her name. Down the path a little farther, they found a second message, also in sidewalk chalk.

Come away with me and let’s have the adventure you’ve always dreamed of.

Next to the message he’d drawn a heart with a good-sized rock set in the center. Under the rock was a couple of brochures. The top one was for whitewater rafting.

AJ pulled out her phone and instinctively stepped closer to Zara, who had her right hand under her t-shirt, no doubt on her concealed firearm. Her left hand let go of AJ’s arm and rested on her back. “Call A—”

“Already on it.”

He answered. “Jamison. This is too soon.”

“I know you are on another call, but we can’t bag and tag this. I need you guys.”

“We’ll be there. Want me to call Logan?”

“Not yet. Zara’s still with me.”

She gave Adam her location and hung up.

Zara said, “Are you sure you don’t want Logan here?”

AJ dropped her shoulders. “Of course I want him here, but we aren’t there … yet.”

“Exactly. Yet.” Zara pulled AJ into a hug.

AJ received the comfort from her friend while keeping her eyes peeled for anyone suspicious.

When they let go, they both continued to search the area.

Adam and Amelia showed up in less than ten minutes.

“He knew exactly where I run.”

Adam scrunched his face as he stared at the chalk message. “I would have thought you knew to vary your path.”

“I do. But most of my routes come through this way.”

He walked over to the heart. With gloves on, he moved the rock and picked up the brochures. The second one was for a bed-and-breakfast. “This tells me he doesn’t know you very well, or is incredibly insensitive.”

“When I was in high school and college, I dreamed of going on a whitewater rafting trip. It was a bucket list item before Bree died.”

Adam nodded. “That’s interesting.”

Zara flung her hand into the air. “Wouldn’t Daryl know you erased that one from your list?”

“You would think, but he’s not the most sensitive man. And like Adam said …”

They all stared at each other. Regardless of insensitivities or not, her stalker knew she loved adventure and had once upon a time had grand dreams of whitewater rafting.

Was he watching her now? He’d obviously been watching her, following her. How did she not know? Not sense that someone was keeping an eye on her?

It unnerved her. She thought she was good at having situational awareness. If so, why didn’t she realize someone was keeping tabs on her?

She hugged herself.

Amelia came up beside her. “Are you okay?”